Heads Up Hollywood

For Tang En to disclose his "exclusive secret recipe", there is no harm to his film career, and it will only bring him a very high reputation.

Anyway, this "exclusive secret recipe", that is, the "explosive style strategy", will be summarized by many theoretical masters in ten years, and will be published in a book and known by the whole world.

He doesn't mind adding the title of "Master of Theory" to himself.

Besides, in the next few decades, Hollywood's blockbuster big IP will basically be in his hands. Even if others understand this truth, it will be too late.

"What is the explosion effect? ​​Don't worry, let's take our time. Let me ask you a question first, do you know who the richest man in the world is?"

Such an idiot question, almost no one does not know.

The audience shouted a name at the same time: "Bill Gates!"

Tang En smiled and said: "That's right, it's Bill Gates. According to the ranking list of "Forbes" magazine, his net worth... is more than 60 billion US dollars. But let me tell you a story. In 1994, Bill Gates Gates is worth $5 billion and he owns 45% of Microsoft."

"According to the generally recognized investment rules, eggs cannot be put in the same basket. Bill Gates hired a very good investment manager-Michael Larson to form Cascade Investment Company. Lal After detailed analysis and research, Mr. Sen asked Bill Gates to reduce his shareholding in Microsoft on a large scale, leaving only 3%. The rest of the money was invested in other fields.”

"As a result, everyone has seen that Michael Larson's investment was successful. He helped Bill Gates become the richest man in the world! However, what would have happened if Mr. Gates hadn't reduced his shareholding in Microsoft back then? ? His net worth...will exceed $250 billion!"

Suddenly, there was an uproar!

$250 billion... What a scary figure that is!

Tang En continued: "Since the 1970s, American companies have invested crazily as soon as they have money. Because everyone generally understands that after diversification of companies, risks can be reduced. Facts have proved that, except for Jack Wei General Electric led by Ilch, Berkshire Hathaway led by Warren Buffett, all the diversified companies, the performance is down, the stock price is depressed.”

"Of course, we are not here to talk about business rules, I just want to tell you a truth: Put your eggs in different baskets, each basket has a high risk of breaking, and 80% of the eggs fall; but put all the eggs in the basket. In one basket, bet all your wealth to ensure that it is a good basket with cotton on the outside and stainless steel on the inside, and it may be rare for any eggs to break."

"This, this is what I call the explosion effect!"

Most of the audience were film school students. They knew little about business philosophy and were a little at a loss.

But the audience in the first row, especially the company executives such as Michael Eisner, Amy Pascal, Jim Ganopoulos, and Alan Horn, looked thoughtful.

Lon Meyer's face was astonished, and he looked at Tang En with shock, "This kid, is he really going to tell the secret?"

In his opinion, Tang En's words are no worse than MBA's business management class!

These viewpoints, of course, are not original by Tang En, ten years later, they will be rotten.

However, at the beginning of 2002, this was still a shocking and different view from the mainstream business view—otherwise, AOL and Time Warner, two companies with little connection, would not have merged in an attempt to find a space for diversified development and reduce corporate risks.

I have to say that Tang En's words seem to make sense.

"Let me tell you another story. I am a football fan... er, English football. There is a club in Spain called Real Madrid. A few years ago, the club had a championship, but the performance was very poor and the brand value was almost zero, so that this All members-based clubs almost went bankrupt. It took only one year for real estate tycoon Fornolentino to come into power, and Real Madrid turned around. Do you know how he did it?"

"He dug the World Footballer of the Year Luis Figo from his rival Barcelona for a record-breaking US$50 million! Are you confused? The club is obviously going bankrupt, why would you pay a sky-high price for someone? This is Ferno Lentino's greatness is that he has seen the value increase of the blockbuster effect."

"Through Luis Figo, Real Madrid's popularity has soared, sponsorship contracts have soared, fans' enthusiasm has soared, and sales of team peripheral products have soared... A year later, he spent another 65 million US dollars to buy football superstar Qi Dane, the brand value of Real Madrid, has reached the level of Manchester United and AC Milan in just two years, becoming the world's top football club."

Tang En originally wanted to talk more about this topic. He is a fan and has this hobby.

But the audience, obviously not interested in this story, English football? have no idea!

Tang En had no choice but to skip this paragraph, "Okay, let's go back to movies. I think everyone likes to watch movies, and they must understand that even the most loyal movie fans only watch one movie a week. If you want a movie to sell well, you must You have to make sure that the movie that fans watch is the one you made."

"This requires the studios to gather limited resources, and at all costs, let the film sprint to the top and become a blockbuster, thereby creating a sensational effect and attracting fans to enter the theater, instead of rashly involving the long tail The market. The essence of the explosion effect is the Matthew effect, the strong get stronger, the weak get weaker, and the winner takes all!"

There were many entertainment reporters at the scene, and the school was also recording videos for preservation, with flashes constantly on.

As the topic unfolded, Tang En's lecture content became more and more in-depth.

The applause disappeared, and everyone was listening quietly, falling into thinking following Tang En's rhythm.

It's just that the Hollywood executives in the first row didn't feel very enjoyable. Tang En's lecture...was too basic. After talking for a long time, they didn't get to the core part.

Everyone knows that the effect of blockbusters is very strong, but how can we make blockbusters?

Tang En must not be in a hurry. The manuscript he worked so hard to prepare must be perfect. He still wants to finish this speech, find a few professionals to consult, correct, and then publish it as a book!

From the theory of blockbusters in the film market, to the theory of blockbusters in the entire commercial market, and then extended to the usual "28 rule".

Tang En did not publish this kind of theoretical textbook, and sooner or later someone else would publish a book and discuss it.

Ten years later, two theories in the business world are the most popular - the long tail effect and the explosion effect.

Two typical companies: Google with the long-tail strategy, and Apple with the explosive strategy.

Tang En is not interested in the long-tail effect, he is following the route of commercial blockbusters, which is a real blockbuster strategy. He didn't mind using it as a base, and became a master of business theory in one fell swoop.

His education is very low, and in the upper class, many people look down on him.

Hollywood is okay, New York's business world is completely different.

After the "911 Incident" last year, he went to New York to attend various charity dinners. Those business tycoons all treated Tang En very contemptuously.

I think this kid is a nouveau riche, he can make a few movies at most, he has no background and lack of quality!

If Tang En could publish a professional book on business theory, it would definitely be like a blockbuster, and it would blow up the global business community!

Therefore, Tang En's speech must be done step by step. He changed the slide, and a set of data appeared on it.

"Here is the overall revenue of Universal Pictures in the past 5 years. We can see that the top 5% of the investment movies accounted for about 20% of the overall budget and 25% of the global revenue; the top 10% of the films consumed Nearly 34% of the investment amount, but also contributed 40% of the overall revenue; the bottom 25% of the budget ranked films accounted for only 6% of the total cost, but their proportion in the box office contribution was only 5%. As for 10% bottom-budget films, and their contribution to box office receipts is simply negligible.”

Twain opened his arms and looked excited, "Have you seen it? Statistics tell us that the more expensive a film is, the higher the rate of return! Let's continue to watch. Here is a comparison between Pixar Animation and DreamWorks Animation over the past 8 years." Figure. Pixar’s average cost per cartoon is $85 million, with an average annual profit of $65 million; DreamWorks’ cartoons cost an average of $32 million, with an average annual profit of... negative $23 million.”

"Is Jeffrey Katzenberg less capable than John Last, the head of Pixar? Obviously not. Mr. Katzenberg is known to be Mr. Last's animation mentor. Last year's Shrek "is Katzenberg's largest investment in a cartoon, and everyone saw it, and it exploded and sold!"

"I told two stories and listed two sets of data, just to tell everyone that the explosive model theory is correct! Large investment does not mean ignoring the huge risks hidden in the explosive model strategy, nor does it deny that small costs cannot achieve success. Probability proves that while the risk is huge, the explosion strategy is also relatively the safest strategy.”

Michael Eisner's work is very busy. He works more than 15 hours a day. Even at lunch, he has to eat and talk with executives.

Tang En had been talking for more than half an hour without focusing on the point. This made him very anxious, and he wanted to stand up and ask questions.

The blockbuster strategy does have its advantages, but what is the difference between it and the theories of "blockbuster" movies and "event" movies a few years ago?

Tang En was paying close attention to the expressions of the executives in the first row. This speech was actually prepared for them.

Let them get the benefits, so as to ignore the loss of benefits Tang En brought to them during the process of exposing the Golden Globe Awards for favoritism and fraud.

At this time, Tang En's speech was halfway through, and finally came to the core topic - "So, how can we create a real blockbuster movie?"

As soon as these words came out, it could be clearly found that the spirits of the audience in the first row were different. Everyone straightened their backs, opened their eyes wide, and were full of thirst for knowledge.

like a child.